One Soviet Team, Minus Baltics

MOSCOW — Sports officials throughout the Soviet Union, excluding the newly independent Baltic republics, have pledged to field a united team for the 1992 Olympics, the Tass news agency said Thursday.

The decision to send a single Soviet team to the Winter Games in Albertville and the Summer Games in Barcelona was made at a meeting of sports officials from the republics, the National Olympic Committee and representatives of all-union sports federation, Tass said.

In the wake of the independence of the Baltic states-Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch said Thursday he will propose next week that the three republics be admitted independently to the Olympic movement.

Samaranch said he would submit the recommendation at an IOC meeting Tuesday in Berlin. He was in Chambery, France, addressing officials of the 15 French cities and towns involved in organizing the 1992 Winter Games, based in Albertville.

Samaranch said he believed Baltic teams would be able to compete at Albertville.